


Promise

by kafrickinboom



Series: Voltron WLW Month [21]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood, Broken Bones, F/F, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Genderbending, Injury, Lance (Voltron) has a Crush, Minor Violence, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Promise, VLD WLW Month, Voltron WLW Month, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 09:36:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11871576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kafrickinboom/pseuds/kafrickinboom
Summary: “Landa!” Pidge cries, panicked, through the comms. “I promise I’ll come back for you. We’ll-!”





	Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Wow I'm late in the day for posting this. Gonna have to work twice as fast for the next one lol. Save me.
> 
> Language notes:  
> Dios mio - my God  
> por favor - please  
> mi familia - my family

“Landa!” Pidge cries, panicked, through the comms. “I promise I’ll come back for you. We’ll-!”

And then it cuts out as Blue reserves all her power for necessities like heat and light, leaving behind a silence so oppressive, Landa can hardly breathe in Blue’s near-dead cockpit, and not only because of the panic crawling up in an attempt to make itself at home in her throat. If not for the emergency lighting, she’d be stuck in a pure pitch black nothingness, but thankfully  _ that _ was all outside, only bits of snow are illuminated by the low blue lights flashing from the dashboard. She only had to survive the night...or longer...until Pidge made good on her promise to come back. 

Landa’s not expecting any miracles though.

It was supposed to be an easy mission. Get in, help the locals, form an alliance, get out. Easy peasy lemon sequeezey. It was supposed to be so easy that they split into teams of three to try and double the amount of progress made. Hunk, Keith and Allura went to another planet through a separate wormhole to try and make connections out on some desert planet where the people lived underground to stay cool. They needed their food pumps fixed or something? Landa isn’t quite sure, but it had sounded pretty simple. Shiro, Pidge and Landa herself came out to this frozen tundra shit to answer a distress call to help fight off a “small brigade of Galra” so they could escape to their caves. 

Landa thought the whole distress signal sounded sketchy, but Allura’s been so damn focused on trying to secure more alliances that she couldn’t be reasoned with. It didn’t help that Shiro supported his girlfriend so easily, claiming they should be able to handle it without a problem.

_ Bad fucking call, Shiro! _ Landa feels like she could just scream out of frustration about the whole situation.  _ Again, _ no one listened to her. 

Well, her number one best friend in the world, Hunk, and her number one crush since “he” (hah!) joined the Garrison, Pidge, (surprisingly) agreed with her. Maybe it isn’t too surprising that Hunk would want to exercise caution considering his propensity for always wanting to take the absolute safest route, even if it increased the amount of time taken to finish the job. 

Pidge, though. She is a straight up 50/50 when it came to agreeing with Landa about...well, anything. Pidge is an interesting blend of sensible and impetuous, always ready to give out reasons why something wouldn’t work but is also ready to just do this thing 25/7. Okay, maybe not  _ that _ much (she isn’t Keith, after all), but still. She’s almost always down for a little danger. 

Anyway, the point is that she actually full-stop sided with Landa this time, and yet the others refused to listen to the three most rational people of the group (she can practically hear Keith’s eye roll from beyond the void and to that she says,  _ shut it). _ Even Coran sided with Allura in the end, but Landa’s pretty sure that had more to do with his loyalty to her as her pseudo uncle and advisor rather than actually believing this was the right course of action.

So they split up. And there were indeed Galra. A metric fuckton of Galra, actually. A “brigade,” her ass. There had to be at  _ least _ a battalion, and they were just waiting around, hoping a Paladin or five would answer their call. It was a trap just like Landa called it. If she wasn’t stuck in this icy hell with no mode of communication to reach them, she would have been screaming “I told you so’s” until she was as blue in the face as her Lion.

You know, they really did hold up a lot better than Landa had expected at first. They had to have taken out  _ hundreds _ of fighter jets and at least four of those big fuckers. Unfortunately, Black and Blue weren’t built for speed, and Green didn’t have the fortitude to withstand laser blast after laser blast. They fought as best they possibly could, taking down as many Galra shits as they could before Allura got back from her (easy) mission, opening a portal.

Of  _ course _ luck continued to be very much  _ not _ on Landa’s side because as they were retreating, a massive beam lit up in her periphery, aimed right at Pidge. Hell to the  _ no, _ she couldn’t let someone hurt her baby girl (even if said baby girl did not know Landa referred to her as ‘baby girl’...nor did she really acknowledge Landa’s existence beyond being a fellow teammate. Whatever). Landa had jumped right in front of the blast, which resulted in Blue careening onto the frozen surface of this unforgiving planet. 

Blue had taken so much damage, it’s a miracle she’s even moderately functional right now. It ‘s a miracle Landa even heard Pidge’s promise before Blue had to go all Power Saver on them. Thank not only her God, but every other deity in existence, that she and Hunk had pointed out the necessity for emergency food supplies in their Lions otherwise she would starve if this promise of Pidge’s took longer than expected.

Now, if only she could move her legs, arms, head...basically her whole body, that would be great. 

Oh yeah! She forgot to mention, in the midst of her panic and indignation and reflection (and also a flood of adrenaline and endorphins rushing through her system), but in being thrown around Blue’s cockpit, both of her legs are now broken, and she  _ knows _ her right arm (her dominant arm,  _ fuck) _ and a rib or two are broken as well. Also a few fingers. Maybe even her collarbone too. There are probably more bones cracked, but everything is one big  _ ouch _ right now, so she’s pretty sure she missed at least a few. She’s also pretty sure she has a concussion if the headache, nausea, dizziness, tinnitus and almost irresistible pull of sleep is anything to go by. It’s painful to breathe, and each passing minute without treatment or drugs is starting to notch the pain up by about ten points a piece. 

Blue’s laying on her side, barely even conscious, sending out as many comforting brainwaves as she can, Landa’s sure, and Landa’s trying her level best to reciprocate. 

“Y-you did so good, girl,” Landa chokes out just in case her efforts aren’t enough.

_ ‘Rest, my Paladin. My sisters will come for us soon,’ _ is the message Landa gets back, and while it  _ still _ fucks with her that she’s bonded with a massive alien robot lion, she can’t help but love it all the same. It’s a comfort amongst the sheer panic and discomfort trying to cloud her mind. She smiles shakily, patting the wall she’s sitting on with the two fingers that don’t send fire up her arms with each movement. 

She knows she shouldn't, but she can’t fight against lethargy this strong when her energy reserves have been all but zapped with each crack and pop of her bones. She lies back against Blue’s unforgiving floor, now in a position that it could be considered a wall, praying,  _ begging _ to all of those deities she thanked before that she actually wakes up from this cat nap she’s about to take rather than, you know, slipping into a coma or something. With one last deep breath and the thought of Pidge’s last expression she’d seen- a smirk and a fond eye roll because of one of Landa’s cheesy jokes- flashing before her mind’s eye, she lets the demons of fatigue pull her down.

\---

She wakes up with a pained gasp, having shifted ever so slightly in her sleep in a way that irritated her legs and ribs. It’s almost as if she could  _ feel _ rogue bone chips floating freely in her thigh, digging into her muscle from within, one brushing up a little too harshly against her lung. Tears flood her eyes as the pain that he hormones had once held at bay came rushing in with vengeance. She can hardly breathe through the pain coursing through her, a full-body throb from head to toe, and she only absently noted the sticky feeling between her fingers, in the crooks of her elbows, along the side of her face. She looked down and immediately the nausea flared back up again.  _ Blood. Everywhere. _

_ Dios mio, _ she hadn’t even noticed it trickling from her temple yesterday. That would definitely explain the concussion. She looks around Blue’s cabin and sighs in relief. Blood spatter here and there, but it wasn’t like the interior got a fresh coat of red paint or anything like that, so maybe Landa didn’t lose  _ too _ much blood. (The tackiness in her clothes suggests otherwise.)

She grits her teeth against the pain as she taps her watch to bring up the relative date and time and  _ mierda, _ she slept for almost sixteen hours. What the actual hell. She sighs wearily, sending more prayers to God and all of His friends, hoping like hell the others have come up with a rescue plan for her. She’s pretty positive that sitting here, almost completely unable to move, her broken bones remaining unset is bad for her skeletal structure and general health. At least she’s not bleeding anymore. Silver linings and all that.

Her stomach decides that  _ now _ is the time to protest being so damn empty, and she whimpers against even the thought of trying to open the cabinet let alone the food packages. As hungry as she is, she doesn't think she can stand to reach up to the opposite wall anyway. She’s pretty sure being hungry is the better option when the only other is aggravating her injuries by try to stand on broken legs. 

If only Shiro and Allura had listened to reason, she wouldn’t be in this situation. Usually, Landa herself is the reason that fucks something up. She’s aware of that fact regardless of Hunk’s persistent reassurances that she doesn't. She knows better though. She knows she’s almost as bad as Keith when it comes to impulsivity and that she’s got one hell of a tendency to put her foot in her mouth more often than not. Oh, and her gullibility has gotten them all into some pretty sticky situations with hot alien babes (she’s still not over the Nyma thing). She also knows she has a lot of emotional baggage that weighs them all down even though compared to a majority of the team, she’s had a rather easy life. She knows she’s the weak link of the team.

Blue musters up enough energy to growl at Landa in her head, and Landa immediately feels like an asshole for not even being considerate enough to check on her Lion. She sighs heavily, which fucking kills, and the depression she’s held at bay by a crumbling mental chokehold starts slipping through, killing the last vestiges of her positivity.

What if they don’t make it back in time? What if Pidge  _ can’t _ keep her promise, or makes good on it too late? What if the sharp pain in her ribs actually punctures her lung? What if she bleeds out, alone and hungry with no way of saying goodbye or telling Pidge how she feels? What if she dies at the age of 17 not knowing what it’s like to go past first base? What if she never gets to return to Earth? What if her family never knows she tried her best to come back to them? Too many ‘what ifs’ filter through her mind, dragging her further into hopelessness, despair and exhaustion.

Landa’s actually pretty astounded by the fact that her body hasn’t gone into shock by now, but one of Landa’s positives is that she has the stubbornness of a bull when it comes to survival. She just hopes her will to live is enough to keep her going until they can throw her in one of the healing pods. 

Maybe if she takes another nap, she’ll wake up to better news. 

\---

It’s cold when she wakes up again, and her nose is starting to feel like ice as the temperature drops. She blearily looks around as best she can with her muscles as tight and tensed as they are around her her broken bones. Blue’s light seems to be much dimmer than it was the last time she was awake. She can just make out her boots in front of her and not much else. The heating element is probably starting to give out as Blue loses more power. As injured as she is, Landa’s pretty surprised she lasted this long too. Maybe they were both just resilient like that. 

At least her body’s starting to numb. Somewhere deep down, she’s aware that that’s not actually a  _ good _ thing, but at this point she’s not thinking 100% clearly. She just knows that needs a damn break from the restless sleep and the shooting pains like glass in her veins and the deep, rolling throb in her head that made her want to throw up every bit of  _ nothing _ in her stomach. She could use about 50 tacos right about now, but she’s not even sure she could eat that much considering she feels like some kind of food Grinch- her stomach having shrunk three sizes over the time she’s been stuck in here. Each clench it makes around the lack of food feels stronger, sharper, more severe.

Glancing at her watch, she realizes it’s been another eight hours or so since she fell asleep. “Nap,” her ass. Sighing, fully awake with nothing to do but wait, between the minutes  _ (hours?) _ of mental radio silence, she starts thinking of what the others could be doing right now.

Hunk is probably having a meltdown. The poor guy has anxiety issues out the ass, and considering she’s his best friend, she guarantees he’s equally fuming and flipping his shit. She can practically see him chewing at his nails as he tries to get everyone moving faster, faster,  _ faster. _ That, or he’s eating something to try and keep himself calm while they strategize.

Shiro’s probably doing that stoic sad thing he does when he messes up. It’s a sight that’s burned itself in Landa’s mind in 1080p solely due to how  _ rare _ it is. She bets he’s got the puppy face on while formulating a plan with Allura, who’s probably beating herself up for being so careless or something. Landa tries her level best not to feel a bit of satisfaction about that, but again.  _ She told them so. _ She just hopes they figure something out ASAP.

Keith’s probably losing his shit like Hunk, but more...aggressively. He’s always been a man of action, ready to go at all hours of the day, and Landa bets just sitting around waiting is killing him. It’s probably killing him even more that he wasn’t here to begin with. She bets he thinks he could have prevented all of this shit from happening. Keith had a tendency to try and shoulder everything himself. What a goober.

Coran is probably trying to keep everyone calm while flitting around the deck like a worried mother hen.

Pidge… Pidge is probably either seething behind the keys of a computer, looking up everything she can about this bullshit tundra planet or maybe trying to figure out who sent out the distress beacon to begin with. Maybe she’s sitting there, eyes wide with her thick brows scrunched and worried while she bites her lip. Her anxiety face is so damned cute, but it always makes Landa want to kiss her nose to see if it’ll flatten out to her normal beauty. Maybe she’s cleaning her glasses for the millionth time, looking for something to do with her hands. Maybe she’s tinkering with Rover or working on an upgrade for Green. Maybe she’s  _ in _ Green, waiting to go. Maybe she-

The weak crackling of the comms system jolts her out of her thoughts. Her head jerks up hopefully only for her to cry out in pain, cutting through the fuzzy numbness she thought her body had secured her with. Her vision goes wonky, like when you try to zoom in and out too quickly on your camera and it can’t focus on anything. It takes her a solid fifteen seconds to blink the blurriness.  _ Maldición, _ she’s pretty sure she’s only exacerbating her fucking wounds and it’ll be lights out again if she does that again.

Another crackle and the skipping of a voice filters through the cockpit, and Landa’s heart starts racing. She tries to squirm her way closer to the mic as the  _ kshh _ sounds become more frequent.  _ Dios, por favor… _ She just wants out of here. She wants to go  _ home. _ Blue purrs weakly at the thought that Landa considers the Castle of Lions her home away from home.

The corners of Landa’s lips flicker upward as she thinks, ‘ _ of course it is. You, Pidge, Hunk, the others...you guys are family to me, and home is where  _ mi familia _ is.’ _

She feels Blue do something Landa likes to think as smiling in her head. It’s a warm, tingling feeling that passes into her through their mental link, filling Landa with a sense of happiness and contentment that makes her want to dance. If only she wasn’t comparable to a smashed marionette doll, she  _ so _ would too.

_ “Lan-ksh-a! Are y-ksh-re?” _ Shiro’s voice rings loud and clear through the static.

“Y-yeah! I’m here!” Landa yells back. Well, it  _ feels _ like a yell, but sounds more like a reedy whisper through a straw.

_ “Landa! We’ve locked on your coordinates and are coming to get you,” _ Pidge cuts through, intense and- was that a warble at the end? Landa might just be imagining things, putting too much wishful thinking into it, but it almost sounded like Pidge is distraught. Maybe it was because of her; maybe it was because the fight to get back here was super intense or something. Landa doesn’t know. She’s been stuck in a slowly-freezing metal box. 

As soon as she thinks about it, she notices her breath puffing out of her in short bursts. She doesn’t even know when it got so damn cold, but the awareness brings a chill that racks through her body so severely, she begins shaking. She’s not sure it’s entirely the cold that has her shaking either. Blood loss. Low blood sugar. Waves of pain. The cold. So much bullshit. She whimpers through it, trying so fucking hard to stop shivering so she doesn’t make anything worse until her team rescues her.

_ “Okay, where the hell are you?!” _ Keith snaps, and Landa hears Pidge muttering about ‘the fucking snowfall’ before Hunk cries out,  _ “there! I think I see Blue’s tail!” _

Not even a full two minutes later does Landa feel a trembling beneath her and hears the dulled sound of the Lions landing outside.  _ Oh, thank fuck. _

_ “Landa, how badly are you hurt? I’m coming to get you right now.” _ Pidge says, and Landa has a brief ‘what the fuck’ moment because...shouldn’t Shiro be making the calls? Not that Landa is complaining about being the princess saved by the other beautiful(, smarter, more perfect) princess or anything, but it confuses her enough to make her slur incoherently for a second. “ _ Landa?” _

Snapping out of it, Landa croaks, “it’s, it’s pretty bad, P-Pigeon. I-I’ve got a lot of broken bones, and,” she cuts off to pant through another wave of pain, “it’s pretty bloody, so, uh...prepare for that, I-I guess.” After a moment’s pause and a sharp gasp cutting through the sudden silence in the cockpit, she adds, “you can, you always send Sh-Shiro if you want. You might need m-more than one, one person to move me a-anyway.”

She’s pretty damn proud of herself for getting so many words out at once in her state. She just prays that they all came out coherently and not an unintelligible mess. Belatedly she focuses on multiple voices talking over one another, deciding how they should proceed. 

_ “I’m going in! You guys can just sit on your asses and figure yourselves out,” _ Pidge says, her tone brooking no argument, and Landa’s pretty sure she just tipped over from ‘crushing’ to ‘falling in love.’ 

A few minutes later, the emergency override on the door goes off, and in crawls Pidge. Wonderful, intelligent, amazing, silly, beautiful Pidge. Landa’s starting to feel fuzzy again, smiling up at her rescuer dopey and bright, completely ignoring how it pulls at the gashes on her temple as sleep starts begging her to come back and join it in the land of dreams. She vaguely registers Pidge’s terrified face as she rushes to Landa’s side and Keith’s voice filtering in behind her as she blacks out.

\---

Waking up from a healing pod-induced coma is such a weird experience. Landa feels like she  _ should _ feel like one big bruise, an echo of pain filtering through her mind that doesn’t reach physical feeling. She doesn’t quite have the strength to open her eyes or even hold herself up as she topples out of the pod and immediately collides with something that goes,  _ ‘oof!’ _ when it catches her around the waist.

“Jesus, you’re heavier than you look,” Keith’s voice registers and Landa’s eyes fly wide. She takes in his smug (rude) smirk and promptly sticks her tongue out at him, shifting on her feet as she finds her center of balance. She holds onto his shoulders as she shakes off the last bit of sleepiness hanging around the edges of her subconscious. You’d think Landa would have a massive headache from sleeping so damn long, but instead she feels refreshed, thinking much more clearly than she has since before Blue went down. 

_ Blue. _

“How’s Blue doing?” Landa asks Keith once she’s on her own two feet, and his face goes a bit soft at the question. He, more than anyone else, understands how much Landa’s Lion means to her. He has the same connection with Red.

“Last I heard, she’s doing pretty great, actually. Pidge has been bouncing between being down there, fixing her up, and watching over you.” Keith’s asshole smirk makes another appearance as Landa’s face flushes. “You want me to call her up here?”

“I...no. I’ll just go down to Blue’s hangar and see if she’s down there,” and when Keith’s smirk grows to a grin, she adds, “a-and to check on Blue, obviously. But she’s in great hands if Pidge has been fixing her up, so I’ll just…” She motions behind her, sending a salute before turning around.

“Hey, Landa,” Keith calls before she exits the room. 

She stops, turning back to ask, “yeah?”

“I’m...glad you’re okay.” Keith says, and Landa’s brows fly high as she takes a closer look at him. He’s never really been one for tender moments, but the darker discoloration around his eyes, the limpness in his hair and a thinness she hadn’t really noticed before speaks of how worried he was for her. 

The awareness shocks her into asking, “thank you, but...how long was I out?”

Keith purses his lips, glancing back at the healing pod as he answers. “A month.”

“A  _ month?!” _ Landa screeches, and both she and Keith wince at the volume. “What the actual fuck? Why?”

“Well, you had a lot of damage that needed healing. Broken bones, nerve damage, lacerations, a concussion. I don’t have the list memorized like Pidge and Coran do, but the list was pretty long. You must have been thrown around a lot on the way down.” Keith explains as he walks up to her. “It was pretty touch and go for a bit there, but...I’m glad you’re okay.”

Holy shit. He just said it  _ twice. _ He must have been super concerned to actually repeat it. She gives in to the urge to hug him, and he freezes for a couple seconds before squeezing back. It’s a nice moment for them. Their rivalry has been shifting from serious to playful for a while now, and this just feels like a level up for their friendship. 

When she pulls back, she punches his shoulder with a grin. “Thanks for catching me, by the way.”

“No problem. Now go get your girl,” Keith says as he walks away, laughing when Landa sputters behind his retreating back.

_ Dios mio, _ maybe their rivalry could use a resurgence. Keith is such an  _ ass. _

She ignores the heat in her cheeks as she takes the elevator down to Blue’s hangar. She bounces on the balls of her feet, psyching herself up to see Pidge again after what has apparently been a whole fucking month of not seeing her. It feels like just yesterday she was blacking out with Pidge’s wide, wet eyes imprinting themselves behind Landa’s eyes as she passed out. She hopes her baby girl hasn’t been worrying too much about her (even though she knows that’s not a real possibility- Pidge is a  _ fantastic _ worry wart, even if she tries to hide it by burying her face deep into her tech).

When the elevator stops, she takes a deep breath before making her way into the room. Her eyes fly wide at how good Blue looks. Landa isn’t sure what she’d looked like before her repairs, but it can’t have been good what with literally smashing into an unforgiving ice bed. Now, though, she looks radiant. Landa can’t even see any real noticeable changes to her appearance beyond that glaring shine under the hangar’s fluorescent lights.

“Landa!” is the only warning she gets before she’s bowled over. She’s being clutched so tightly, Landa’s fearful her ribs might re-break. She can hardly breathe for a couple reasons- one, it’s hard to respire when her lungs are being compressed by surprisingly strong arms, and two,  _ Pidge is hugging her. _

Pidge- the girl who shies away from too much affection, from too much physical contact in general, who always acted like she would rather do literally anything else but accept one of Landa’s hugs, is  _ hugging her. _ She’s wrapped around Landa tightly, squishing Landa’s arms to her sides in a way that only allows for her to be able to reciprocate with her forearms and hands. She allows herself to tilt her head against Pidge’s just below her chin, subtly smelling the faint scent of oil and chamomile clinging to her hair. Landa closes her eyes as she dares to press a sweet, little kiss to the top of Pidge’s head…

Which is when Pidge pulls back. Landa freaks for approximately 1.4 seconds before she catches the look on Pidge’s face. Her eyes speak of a battle anguish and relief, underlined with big, fat tears rolling down her face. Her mouth, though, is spread into a grin so wide, there’s no question about how happy she is to see Landa. She brings her small hands to cup Landa’s cheeks, and Landa’s eyes fly wide at the gesture. 

“Don’t you  _ ever _ do that again to me, damn it.” Pidge says, her tone caught somewhere between serious and giggling as her gaze bores into Landa’s eyes. “You have to promise me you won’t do that again.”

Landa smiles fondly down at her baby girl, bringing her hands up to curl gently around Pidge’s delicate wrists. She doesn’t know where the hell this sudden burst of confidence is coming from, but she doesn’t question it as she rests her forehead against Pidge’s, admitting, “that’s a promise I’m not willing to make. Or keep, for that matter.” When Pidge sputters indignantly, she continues, “if I hadn’t, that blast would have hit you, and I just- I-I couldn’t let it-  _ You _ mean so much-” And like that, her confidence loses traction as she starts hitting a bit too close to the truth of her feelings. She breathes out shakily into the sudden, weighted silence.

Pidge’s thumbs rub gently at Landa’s cheek bones, catching Landa off-guard when she lifts herself up on the balls of her feet to press the gentlest of kisses to Landa’s lips. With an overwhelmed groan, she snaps, moving her hands to hinges of Pidge’s jaw, tilting her baby girl’s head up for a deeper kiss. 

The lightest of gasps against Landa’s lips and two hands burying themselves in the back of Landa’s hair is enough to pull the corners of her mouth into a blissful grin. She doesn’t add her tongue to the mix just yet. She doesn’t let her hands stray from the curve of where Pidge’s jaw meets her neck. She doesn’t press for more, more,  _ more _ like she wants to. There’s always time for that later. For now, she just enjoys being allowed to do this. 

When she pulls back, she presses affectionate little kisses to Pidge’s nose, forehead, cheeks, chin- everywhere she can reach until Pidge playfully pushes her away with an amused roll of her eyes. Landa ends her loving assault with one last chaste kiss to Pidge’s lips before thanking her for saving Landa. 

Pidge’s eyes soften as she smiles. “I always keep my promises.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! <3
> 
> Next up: f!Kallura, "Movie/Theatre AU"


End file.
